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THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PRUNING. 
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Fig. 7. 
year, other circumstances being favourable, and the process of shortening must again be repeated. If 
spurs become long and do not indicate buds at their base, they may be cut back, leaving a shoulder 
(Fig. 7), from which a bud, or buds, is almost sure to proceed in the following spring. These obser- 
vations apply to the Pear-tree whether against a wall, an espalier, a pyra- 
mid, or pendulous-trained tree. 
The qucnouille or tying down system has long been practised in 
continental gardens, and it is one which was also adopted long ago in 
the garden of the Horticultural Society of London. From a central stem 
tables of shoots, at regular distances, diverge, and are trained down to a 
circular hoop, to which their points are fastened ; during the summer all 
the young shoots, excepting the leading one, are bent and tied down, to 
check luxuriance and induce the formation of fruit-studs at their base, 
to which, at the winter thinning, they are pruned back. "We have prac- 
tised this plan extensively, with the exception that we fracture the 
summer shoots instead of tying them down, for the good effect of which 
we again refer to Fig. 5. The word qucnouille is French, and signifies 
a distaff, in allusion to the shape of the tree. 
Pyramidal framing, as its name implies, presumes a tree to be in the shape of a cone, or pyramid ; 
and to be perfect, it should be clothed with fruit-bearing spurs from its base to its summit. As it is 
the most natural form in which Pear-trees can be trained, so is it also the most advantageous, by the 
very equal amount of light which is afforded to the lower, as well as to the upper, branches and 
leaves. It is of moment, in this sunless climate, to adopt such a mode of training as will expose the 
largest, surface of foliage to the direct action of the solar influence; and, next to wall-training, no other 
plan affords this advantage in an equal ratio. Another great advantage is the economy of space, thus 
enabling the amateur, with a few rods of ground, to combine the multum of horticultural interest with 
the minimum of space. To those who would do this, we earnestly recommend the perusal of our 
friend Mr. Rivers of Sawbridgworth's admirable little treatise, The Amateur Fruit Garden. He 
strongly recommends Quince stocks for pyramidal Pears, and certainly, in situations where they 
flourish, they are excellent; but on many dry gravelly soils they only languish and die, this stock 
requiring a strong, moist, unctuous loam to grow in. In such soil Pears or Quince stocks, root-pruned 
so as to become a mass of small hair-like fibres, and the shoots pinched on the plan of M. Cappe (see 
Gardener's Chronicle) are interesting, satisfactory, and beautiful objects. 
We will suppose a young tree planted to form a pyramid. In the first year it will put forth four 
or five young shoots. Select that which is most suited for a leader, and pinch the points of all the 
rest when they have grown to the length of two inches. Should they push again repeat the process, 
making occasional exception in favour of shoots which are too vigorous, and taking care not to pinch 
the shoots at the base of the tree so closely as those of the upper part, in order to induce the pyramidal 
form required. Sometimes the pinching severely causes the young shoot so operated upon to die off 
and converts the embryo-spurs at its base into shoots. This is, however, the exception rather than 
the rule, which is, that the shoots so pinched remain stationary and form fruit-spurs at the base. A 
few of the shoots may require a little regulation by tying out when the tree is young, so as to ensure 
regular shape. 
The management of Pears as standard orchard trees has been so often explained, and is so generally 
understood, that we do not think it necessary to advert to it in this paper. 
THE APPLE. 
The Apple is so similar in its mode of bearing to the Pear, that it would be mere tautology to 
illustrate it. The mode of training, too, which is most generally in use (the horizontal) is common to 
both fruits, and need not be again explained. But, although this is the case, we are convinced that 
the pyramidal, or even the quenouille, mode, would answer admirably if the kinds were worked upon 
the dwarf or paradise stock, and treated as directed for the Pear, both as to summer and root pruning. 
Such little symmetrical pyramids of fruit are most interesting objects, and have the concomitant 
advantage of doing little injury to the neighbouring crops. 
Some years ago there existed, in the garden of the Horticultural Society, at Chiswick, a row of 
Apple-trees (standards), the points of whose branches were pulled down by strings, and which were 
trained in the shape of a balloon ; they were pretty and very fruitful. Other modes of training might 
be adverted to, but as many of them are more fanciful than useful, the reader is referred to Loudon's 
Encyclopaedia of Gardening, in which full descriptions will be found. 
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